2019 Weston Awards Recap

Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate walking and the walkstars among us at the 2019 Weston Awards!

The 2019 Weston Awards was an incredible celebration of walking. Old friends and new friends came together on November 8th because we believe walking is transportation justice, climate justice, and health justice.

The 2019 Weston Awardees delivered powerful speeches that connected us to each other and to the cause of walking as an equity issue. Irene Marion, who accepted the award on behalf of the PedPDX Walking While Black Team, shared powerful testimony from participants in the Walking While Black focus groups, lessons from the equity and inclusion work at PBOT, and the importance for all of us to center racial equity in our work.

Sam Balto, PE Teacher at Cesar Chavez School, invited all of us to connect to our own experiences walking in our neighborhoods and the importance of building safe, accessible routes to school. He also shared a vision of a car-free street in front of Cesar Chavez during drop off and pick up, so that students walking to and from school have the ultimate safe route to school.

Samuel Thompson, longtime community leader, shared the story of his inspiration for creating Next Level Health Walks, a walk focused on promoting Black health and celebrating community in the first walking only section of a Sunday Parkways in the heart of NE Portland. You can see his entire speech here.

Spending an evening with friends and colleagues who are as passionate as we are about making our city and state a better place for all who walk and use assistive mobility devices is what makes the Weston Awards an amazing night. We are so happy to spend an evening celebrating with you.

Walk on!

You can find photos of the evening here:

Thank you to our incredible sponsors

Goodbye Weston Awards.

Hello________ Awards!

As Oregon Walks continues to deepen our equity learning and practice, we have come to understand it is time to rename our signature award and fundraising gala. The Weston Awards had been named after Edward Payson Weston, known for his incredible walking journeys in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While he certainly is a remarkable walker, we will be searching for award title/s that are representative of all walkers and people using mobility devices in Oregon. Be thinking about what the next iteration of the awards gala should be named and look for future opportunities to share your ideas/inspirations with Oregon Walks!